Rare Rhino At Brink Of Extinction

A handful of expatriate ecologists have arrived in the northeastern corner of Zaire for what could be the vigil over the extinction of a rare race of rhinoceros.

The Northern White Rhino, a close relative of the Southern White Rhino, which itself was heaved back from the edge of extinction in the `50s, once thrived in Sudan, Uganda, Chad, the Central African Republic and Zaire.

But armed conflict in the region has put sophisticated arms and ammunition into the hands of poachers to such an extent that there are now only 14 Northern White Rhinos left in Zaire`s Garamba National Park.

The African Elephant and Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) heard at its annual meeting in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, recently that there were about another 10 in European zoos. However, according to the group`s figures, the number has declined from 17 two years ago.

``Captive breeding programs are not all that successful,`` said David Cumming, new chairman of the specialist group who is also a senior officer in Zimbabwe`s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management.

``The loss of the Northern White rhino will be the extinction of yet another large mammal on the continent, and a tragic symbolic loss to the conservation effort,`` he said.

Optimism for building up the 14 survivors to a ``safe`` level is not widely shared. Rhinos have calves at an optimum rate of one in three years, and remain vulnerable to poaching and death by disease, age, and malnutrition. What also alarms experts is that breeding within the tiny group may lead to genetic defects, and in turn to high rates of natural abortion, low conception and offspring that are sterile, malformed or prone to disease.

A year ago, the group adopted the rehabilitation of the Northern White as its chief priority, and early this year a team from the group was dispatched to plead with Zaire`s President Mobutu Sese Seko for help.

They asked for permission to take the rhinos out of the park to set up a breeding nucleus, where the animals would be safe from poachers.

Mobutu turned them down, perhaps anxious to avoid the small blow to national pride represented by the removal of the two-ton beasts from what has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.

Instead, he told the group he would take steps to ensure their protection inside Garamba. A team of consultants appointed by the IUCN moved in later to help the local staff.

The Northern White Rhino is closely related to its southern cousin, but records from early explorers show the two 1,800 miles apart. Genetic studies now being carried out show considerable differences between the two subspecies.

Few behavioral studies have been carried out on the Northern White, but there are believed to be differences here too. White rhinos are placid beasts --in sharp contrast to the unpredictably dangerous black rhino.

They create their own ``toilets`` returning regularly to the same great heaps of dung. This practice makes them easy prey to poachers.

In the early 1960s, the notorious Simba guerrillas fighting for the independence of what was then the Belgian Congo, massacred the rhinos in the park, bringing their population down from 1,000 to about 100. Their numbers grew to just over 400 in 1979, but the slaughter began again, with their numbers being cut in half year by year.

The Garamba was one of the jewels of the Belgian colonial empire, frequented by Belgian royalty and millionaires. It has, however, been totally neglected for 24 years since independence.

Game scouts are paid $3 per month, and rarely follow the government-regulated 4 1/2-hour workday. Pay is often delayed for months, and the park staff go on strike until they receive their pittances. Visitors report being offered animals for sale by the staff.

Poachers are poorly remunerated. A gang of four caught last year admitted receiving $35 for the horns they had hacked off four rhinos they had killed.